Racho Petrov Stoyanov () (3 March 1861 – 22 January 1942) was a leading

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

n general and politician. Petrov was born in

Shumen Shumen (, also Romanization of Bulgarian, romanized as ''Shoumen'' or ''Šumen'', ) is the List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, tenth-largest city in Bulgaria and the administrative and economic capital of Shumen Province. Etymology The city ...

. A talented soldier, he was appointed Chief of General Staff at the age of 24 and was Minister of Defence at 27. His stature was increased by the leading role he took in suppressing an army mutiny in 1887. He married Sultana Pantaleeva Minchovich in 1887, with whom he had 3 children. After an unhappy marriage, they divorced in 1919. Both Petrov and his wife were personally close to Tsar

Ferdinand I of Bulgaria Ferdinand I (Ferdinand Maximilian Karl Leopold Maria; 26 February 1861 – 10 September 1948) was Prince of Bulgaria from 1887 to 1908 and Tsar of Bulgaria from 1908 until his abdication in 1918. Under his rule, Bulgaria entered the First Worl ...

and in 1891 he was promoted by Ferdinand to the rank of colonel, the first officer to hold that rank in Bulgaria. Petrov also attended Ferdinand's wedding to Princess Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma in Italy in 1893. Ferdinand's decision in 1894 to place Petrov in charge of the army completely, and thus outside the command of Prime Minister

Stefan Stambolov Stefan Nikolov Stambolov (; 31 January 1854 Adoption of the Gregorian calendar#Adoption in Eastern Europe, OS – 19 July 1895 Adoption of the Gregorian calendar#Adoption in Eastern Europe, OS) was a Bulgarian politician, journalist, revoluti ...

, precipitated the resignation of the latter. As a politician, he twice served as

Prime Minister of Bulgaria The Prime Minister of Bulgaria () is the head of government of Bulgaria. They are oftentimes the leader of a political coalition in the Bulgarian parliament, known as the National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unica ...

, initially as the non-party head of an interim administration in 1901, the only task of which was to organize the next election. He returned as prime minister for a longer period from 1903 to 1906, having been appointed for fear of war after a Bulgarian insurrection in Ottoman

Macedonia Macedonia (, , , ), most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a former administr ...

. His government was particularly concerned with military matters and oversaw an armament program and extensive modernization of the Bulgarian army. During the

Second Balkan War The Second Balkan War was a conflict that broke out when Kingdom of Bulgaria, Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia and Kingdom of Greece, Greece, on 1 ...

Petrov, by then a Lieutenant General, took command of the 3rd Army, leading it at the Battle of Bregalnica, a Serbian victory. During the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

he served as head of the newly established Macedonian Military Inspection Oblast from December 1915 until October 1916.''National-liberation movement of the Macedonian and Thracian Bulgarians 1878-1944''. Macedonian Scientific Institute, Sofia, 1997, . pp. 361-362, 396

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Petrov, Racho 1861 births 1942 deaths People from Shumen Bulgarian generals Prime ministers of Bulgaria Government ministers of Bulgaria Members of the National Assembly (Bulgaria) Bulgarian military personnel of the Balkan Wars Bulgarian military personnel of World War I People of the Serbo-Bulgarian War Bulgarian cartographers Recipients of the Order of Bravery Recipients of the Order of the Medjidie, 1st class Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 1st class Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Takovo Topographers 19th-century Bulgarian military personnel 20th-century Bulgarian military personnel Defence ministers of Bulgaria Ministers of foreign affairs of Bulgaria People from the Ottoman Empire Imperial Nikolayev Military Academy alumni

See also

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